The seasons officially change at 7:31 am MDT on Tuesday, September 22, the autumn equinox, when summer ends and autumn begins. There’s nothing to see directly, but you do experience it in a sense: on the equinox the sun rises due east and sets due west and the days and nights are each 12 hours […]
Often there are no planets in the evening sky, or only one. Now there are three – plus one in the morning sky. All four are about as bright as they ever get, so don’t take this abundance of planets for granted; this is a special time. The first two planets you’ll see are Jupiter […]
The sky is always changing. Some things happen quickly, like a solar eclipse or a meteor. Other changes happen infinitely slowly, like the rotation of the Milky Way. But many changes take place over weeks and months, and people with short attention spans will miss them but regular sky watchers can follow the progress. One […]
The moon is full on the 1st – if you live in Utah. It’s full on the 2nd if you live in Chicago. Why the difference? Start by asking “for how long is the moon full?” The answer is the same as for the question “how long is it noon” – just an instant. The […]
As the sky is growing dark the planet Jupiter appears in the southeast, followed soon after by Saturn a short distance to the left. These planets are 8° apart this month, but that gap will narrow dramatically in months to come until they’re almost touching (as your eye sees them) in late December. Note their […]
This week and the next two months are a great time to watch the planets since the four brightest are out at one time or another although not all together. Here’s where they are this week. Jupiter and Saturn appear low in the southeast as the sky grows dark, which is around 9 PM. Jupiter […]
Photo: Meteors radiate from the northeast but appear all over the sky. THE event this week is the annual Perseid Meteor Shower which peaks on the evening of Tuesday the 11th. Meteors, also called “shooting stars” are the flash of light you see when a piece of dust from outer space falls through our atmosphere. […]
Comet NEOWISE amazed everyone as the brightest comet in two decades, and it remains visible although now you’ll need both binoculars and a dark sky to see it – and a good finding chart. It’s fading as it heads back to the outer solar system whence it came. This week it’s in the early evening […]
Comet NEOWISE remains visible in the early evening sky to the left of the Big Dipper. It was closest to the sun on July 3 and closest to the earth on the 23rd, and it’s now fading as it leaves the earth and sun behind. According to predictions, it might still be visible to the […]
This spring two comets that were expected to become bright failed us, but a third comet discovered only in late March snuck up on us and put on an unexpectedly great show in the morning sky during the first week of July when it was easily visible to the naked eye. Named Comet NEOWISE, it […]
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